Donna Marie Calima, DDS

My family went to Dr Colima for over ten years and we recently quit her due to her incompetence. She’s a nice enough lady but that has nothing to do with professional competence. Last straw was when she totally botched my wife’s implant, costing us another $ 2,850. Now I just went to our new dentist only to be told ‘IT DID NOT APPEAR THAT I HAD BEEN UNDER DR.‘S CARE’ based on the condition of my teeth. I now need crowns, deep cleaning, on and on… Maria shame shame on you

I read the Unilocal reviews before I went to Dr. Colima and was skeptical at 1^st. I have been to a lot of dentists of the years and have almost every type of work you could get done lol.
The visit to Dr. Colima was one of the best and relaxing visits to a dentist I have ever had.
1) Nancy her assistant was friendly, quick, and didn’t hand me a handful of papers to fill out.
2) There was less than a 5 minute wait to go into the office for x-​rays.
3) Dr. Colima was very friendly, concerned, and very knowledgeable. She read my history & she let me know what and why she did before she did it.
4) She is gentle, it was the 1^st time I was ever able to get my teeth cleaned without some sort of anesthetic.
This just goes to show that some negative Unilocal reviews may be from people that have their own problems or their own agenda. I will recommend her to my friends and family.

Reading some of these reviews against my experience with Dr. Calima has prompted me to present my review to potential patients for information worth hearing about.
I have neglected my dental priorities for a number of years and decided to sign up with Delta Dental Insurance at the beginning of this calendar year 2012 because I had a few questionable teeth that were starting to bother me. I selected Dr. Calima by luck of the draw and I am sure glad I did!
Although the appearance her office does not lend itself to Beverly Hills or Brentwoood architecture, it is clean and adequate for my needs. My concern is for quality dental care and maintenance of healthy teeth rather than how many bonsai trees adorn her office.
The first appointment she x-​rayed & examined my teeth and immediately diagnosed one tooth as an immediate root canal that she referred out to because of the extreme level of severity of decay.
She has since successfully performed the deep root cleaning, and filled several badly decayed teeth that had deep cavities leaving an unblemished cosmetically correct smile absent of any signs of decay as I had been experiencing. Dr. Calima, her appointment scheduler and hygenist are always prompt, professional, courteous and caring to me with my dental concerns and needs. I feel very fortunate to have selected this particular dentist though my Delta Dental Insurance plan and highly recommend her to colleagues and associates looking for a precision quality dental provider that Dr. Calima has proven herself to be with me on a number occaisions in the ongoing battle I face with tooth decay. Thank you Dr. Calima, you get all five stars in gold in my book!

I had a cavity that was unfortunately need to be a Root canal. Dr. Calima took almost two hours trying to fix the tooth. She finally told me we needed to have a root canal done with much regret. I appreciate her honesty and do not understand these bad reviews. They just dont make any sense.

I recently started going to Dr. Calima because I was sick and tired of the larger dental groups charging exorbitant amounts for services not covered through insurance.
My husband needed to have a deep cleaning done, and the large dental group we belonged to wanted to charge him over $ 1200 to do it! We laughed, declined and I changed dentists immediately. Well, Dr. Calima only charged us a grand total of $ 200!
Visually, Dr. Calima’s office is small, and does not have all of the bells and whistles as the larger dental offices, but I decided to try her out because she is literally around the corner from my home. Dr. Calima was very personable and did a decent job cleaning my our teeth. If you want a basic reasonable priced dentist that does not take advantage of you, give her a try.

If I could give this dentist a zero star, I would. I chose her out of my insurance book several years ago when I was a starving student who’s student insurance didn’t cover my regular dentist. Let me just say that I chose her because she was the only female dentist within walking distance of my house and I wanted to help a sister out. I saw her twice.
First visit: my teeth are all in the wrong spots on the bottom. This hasn’t been an issue with any of the other dentists I’ve seen over the years, but Dr. Calima felt the need to call in EVERY OTHER PERSON IN THE OFFICE to gawk at them.
I can’t remember the following visit, but some time after, I was flossing and a strangely located tooth literally broke off in my hand!!! It was totally rotted. I went to a great dentist up the street (thanks Dr. Tayenaka) who said that it had been rotting for at least a year and that my dentist should have noticed it. I guess she was just too busy freaking out over my fascinating teeth to do any real dental work.
Dr. Tayenaka fixed me up nicely and I never went back to this quack. I don’t recommend you do either.

I have been going to Dr. Calima for several years now. I had some staining of my teeth around the fillings she put in, but after a quick polish, they are as good as new. She offered for me to come in anytime if I needed a polish on those teeth because the composite she uses tends to stain if you drink coffee or red wine. Yup, I drink coffee and red wine. My insurance used to pay for everything, but since I am out of insurance, it’s $ 85 for a cleaning.

This office totally met my needs. They are conveniently located, took my insurance, and did not make me wait. Everyone was friendly, efficient and the office was clean, though small (a one dentist operation, I assume) and the equipment appeared adequate. I stop in twice a year for cleaning and exams.
Also, I started going there after a recommendation from a friend who had extensive work done by Dr. Calima and was very happy with the results.
UPDATE
Well, hell. I just removed some stars, several months later. During my cleaning, I inquired about a rough patch on a molar and was told it was a filling, even though I was pretty sure I never had a filling there. Six months later I had different insurance and a different dentist and the rough spot had morphed into a giant cavity at the gum line in my otherwise meticulously maintained teeth. I now need a root canal, a crown lengthening, a cap and a bridge (verified by a second opinion). My new dentist won’t point any fingers but clearly this could have been prevented at my previous checkup. So now I have all this work and am out around $ 2,000 out of pocket. Don’t take any chances – go somewhere else, like Long Beach Dental Group a few blocks north on Redondo.